10-09-2024, 12:23 AM
Disney used to pride themselves on "imagineering". And, they meant it, too -- they wanted to create dreamscape, fancies of imagination, otherworld funscapes, because they thought, first, that that's an essential part a living human experience, and second, because it's the right thing to do: to inspire, delight, and enlighten ourselves and future generations. Love, for our children and inner-childs.
At the same time, they've always had a very sophisticated grasp of mass psychology, capitalism, marketing, and media. It's just that somehow, one was able to exist within the framework of the other. I don't think that's the case any more.
Yes Disney does face problems of viability of business models, changing delivery technology, brand dilution, etc., but they've navigated those shoals in the past, and they could again. I think the real problem they face is they've lost the genuineness of their idealism. And really, that's not a Disney-specific problem. I think they genuinely have trouble finding young idealistic talent for content creation that hasn't been affected by late-stage American capitalist cynicism. The best they seem to do is to find bright-eyed deconstructionist would-be social reengineers, who, say what you will about them, at least have a fervent vision that apes the idealism that built the Mouse.
It's both Disney's problem, because they in some ways built the 20th Century American fever-dream of capitalist-driven utopianism fantasy, and it's not Disney's problem, because it's America's, and we all have to live in the popped bubble of disenchantment that is all that remains.
At the same time, they've always had a very sophisticated grasp of mass psychology, capitalism, marketing, and media. It's just that somehow, one was able to exist within the framework of the other. I don't think that's the case any more.
Yes Disney does face problems of viability of business models, changing delivery technology, brand dilution, etc., but they've navigated those shoals in the past, and they could again. I think the real problem they face is they've lost the genuineness of their idealism. And really, that's not a Disney-specific problem. I think they genuinely have trouble finding young idealistic talent for content creation that hasn't been affected by late-stage American capitalist cynicism. The best they seem to do is to find bright-eyed deconstructionist would-be social reengineers, who, say what you will about them, at least have a fervent vision that apes the idealism that built the Mouse.
It's both Disney's problem, because they in some ways built the 20th Century American fever-dream of capitalist-driven utopianism fantasy, and it's not Disney's problem, because it's America's, and we all have to live in the popped bubble of disenchantment that is all that remains.
